U.S. teens smoke more marijuana, but back off other drugs -survey

Dec 18 U.S. teenagers are smoking more
marijuana, but backing away from other harmful drugs and doing
less binge drinking, according to a report from federal health
researchers released Wednesday.

Easier access to marijuana provided by new state laws
allowing the drug for medical treatment may be a factor,
according to the report from the National Institutes of Health.

The survey found that roughly 6.5 percent of high school
seniors are smoking marijuana daily compared with 6 percent a
decade ago and 2.4 percent in 1993, and nearly 23 percent of
seniors said they smoked the drug in the last month.

About 4 percent of 10th graders said they smoke the drug
daily and 18 percent within the last month.

"We should be extremely concerned," said Nora Volkow,
director of National Institute on Drug Abuse.

The growing use parallels an increase in the potency of
marijuana, so the drug can be even more harmful to developing
brains than in the past, she added.

More teens are smoking marijuana in part because they see
less risk from regular use, according to the "Monitoring the
Future" survey. Slightly less than 40 percent of 12th graders
surveyed said they see regular marijuana use as harmful, down
from 44.1 percent a year ago, the report said.

Researchers said many of the teens reporting regular
marijuana use say they get the drug through a medical marijuana
prescription, either written for themselves or someone else.
Colorado and Washington state have legalized recreational use of
marijuana, while 19 other states and the District of Columbia
permit some form of medical marijuana use.

A separate study also out Wednesday underscored how
legalization can translate into increased use. Washington state
residents will consume an estimated 175 metric tons of marijuana
this year, equivalent to about 50 half-gram joints for each man,
woman and child in that state, according to a study commissioned
by state officials.

The consumption figures are more than double what state
officials estimated ahead of last year's vote to legalize
recreational use of the drug.

The Marijuana Policy Project, which advocates for legal
marijuana, said Wednesday that legalizing marijuana with age
restrictions might reduce marijuana use by teens.

"This data should inspire NIDA to examine the possibility
that regulating marijuana like alcohol and cigarettes could be a
more effective approach than the current system," said MPP
spokesman Mason Tvert.

On a positive note, researchers said teenagers reported
reduced use of synthetic marijuana, sometimes called "K2," or
"Spice," which has been tied to toxic reactions in some users.
The use of harmful inhalants also declined over the last year,
the survey said.

Cocaine and heroin use continued to show gradual declines in
use by teenagers, with use of both drugs at historic lows.

Alcohol use by teens also continued a steady decline, the
survey found. The percentage of tenth-graders who said they
recently drank five or more drinks in a row dropped to 13.7
percent in 2013 from 15.6 percent in 2012, the survey said.

More than 41,600 students from 389 public and private
schools participated in this year's Monitoring the Future
survey.
(Reporting by Carey Gillam in Kansas City and Jonathan
Kaminsky in Olympia, Washington. Editing by Andre Grenon)